Due diligence checklist

Border and identity

• Lawyer has checked whether the coordinates fall inside the 50 km border strip.
• Seller’s identity matches the registry, not only a messaging app.
• If I am abroad, the poder names one property, one purchase, and an end date.

Registry

• Partida registral identified.
• Fresh certificado literal read by my lawyer.
• Fresh certificado de gravámenes read close to signing.
• Mortgages, embargoes, and dispute annotations understood.
• Building is on the title (declaratoria de fábrica), or I know that only the land is registered.

Who signs

• Marital property regime checked. Spouse signs if sociedad conyugal requires it.
• If the owner died, every heir in the sucesión is in the process.
• Every co-owner signs, or has given proper authority.

Municipality and money owed

• Zoning and parámetros urbanísticos allow what I think I am buying.
• Construction license and conformidad de obra checked if there is a building.
• Unpaid predial and arbitrios identified and allocated in the deal.

On the ground

• Physical lot compared with the plano and the registry description.
• Visit at more than one time of day, and in the rainy season if rain changes access.
• Noise sources noted: discoteca, roosters, church, mototaxis.
• Neighbors asked about disputes, flooding, water, and who the seller is.
• Surroundings noted: construction, dumps, spraying, rivers, market, clinic.
• Cracks, humidity, roof, drainage, tank, pressure, wiring, termites in the jungle.
• Engineer versus informal autoconstrucción noted. Engineer hired if the structure worries anyone.

Rural extras

• Not community land, or my lawyer has explained why this file is different.
• Water rights or irrigation reviewed with ANA in mind.
• Access is a right, not only a neighbor’s permission.
• Possession-only paper is not being treated as title. Formalization, if any, is priced as slow and uncertain.

Payment

• Price will be paid through the banking system if it is above the current bancarización threshold.
• Alcabala exemption confirmed for this year, not copied from a blog.
• Notary, registration, and legal fees estimated by the people who charge them.
• A cross-border accountant has been asked about home-country reporting.

This list is a memory aid from personal experience. It is not legal advice. Your lawyer may add items and may tell you some do not apply.